News
September 6, 2006
Radford Dale Gravity Picks-up the Gauntlet in the Quality/Price/Volume Debate
The second vintage of The Winery’s flagship red blend, Radford Dale Gravity, has topped the Stellenbosch-based producers’ expectations in its quality, volumes produced and pre-launch sales.
Alex Dale, founder of The Winery, says three-quarters of the 1 350 cases of the 2004 vintage have already been sold – mainly to the United States, Scandinavia, Britain and South Africa.
“Launching expensive premium wines into what has become a discounter’s market is a notably ambitious task. We’re finding, however, that the market is comfortably matching our pre-launch expectations, which is most rewarding.”
Gravity retails about R200 a bottle in South Africa and 350 12-bottle cases are being reserved for the South African market.
After six vintages of trials Radford Dale Gravity’s maiden vintage in 2003 produced 300 cases – which were sold within a week of launch, Dale says.
“With our 2004 harvest – being of such exceptional quality, and given the coming of age of many of our favourite Stellenbosch vines on our best sites - we expected to be able to up the ante and produce about 1 000 cases. However, we are delighted that the quality of each of the components of the blend gave us the confidence to seize the challenge and to bottle 1 350 cases.”
French vigneron Edouard Labeye – who is a partner in The Winery and is Ben Radford and Alex Dale’s winemaking mentor – says that it is relatively easy to make several hundred cases of top-quality wine but extremely difficult to make a more sizeable amount, without diluting the quality.
“Some of the most famous wineries in the world succeed in unashamedly producing significant amounts of top-class wine every vintage. For example, French producers such as Guigal from my home province of Rhone, as well as the top names in Champagne, Bordeaux, and leading New World producers from California and Australia”, says Dale.
“Most producers in the Cape seem to lack the confidence to try a similar feat, and this is where The Winery sees an opening in this market. Although this will be tough to achieve, our target over the next decade is to work towards producing overall 25 000 cases of really top-end wines annually.
“A small handful of top local producers have succeeded in building-up substantial production of individual signature wines (several thousand cases per vintage), at very high quality levels, such as Rustenberg’s Peter Barlow and De Toren’s Fusion V. Meerlust’s Rubicon is usually in the area of 10 000 cases per annum.”
Contrarily, Dale believes there is no point in producing huge volumes of commercial wines to try to make a living in a sector increasingly dominated by global companies. He also believes that there is a certain lack of sincerity in the higher-priced Cape wines.
“We dislike the practice of hyping the quality and price by dressing up the wine with star personalities or egos. While Gravity is our highest-priced wine, we believe it gives any of the Cape’s famous personality or cult wines a sincere run for their money. Compared to various such wines at R500 – R600 a bottle, we believe that our Gravity (at R200) will offer considerably better value than many, at no less individuality or quality. Some of them are just being plain greedy.”
The current Gravity vintage is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot. The 2003 blend was Merlot dominated, complemented by Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.
Viticulturist Labeye says the proportion of cultivars in the blend is guided by the vintage and the vine, rather than a strict recipe, and “by what nature encourages the most in the vineyard that year.”
He believes the quality of Radford Dale Gravity 2004 is owed primarily to excellent vineyard management, meticulous grape selection and a minimalist gravitational wine-making process that is unique in South Africa.
In the intricate and unique vinification and maturation process, gravity plays a major role in the natural pressings and in the handling of the juice and wine, giving rise to the wine’s name.
Dale says: “These are not mechanical pressings, but natural, gravitational pressings, using the weight of the pomace itself, resulting in far more integrated and supple tannins in the final wine. The juice is denser and richer than free-run and is without the astringency of mechanical pressings.”
One component of the juice flows directly into small Allier oak barrels. The pomace and skins are then left overnight to drip-drain into Demi-Muids or 600 lt French oak casks. Another component sees various varieties co-fermented in new open-top Demi-Muids, before being returned to them post-alcohloic fermentation to carry-out malo in the same vessels -giving rise to the total integration of the oak with the ferment at the outset, which minimises its impact on the maturing wine later on.
Dale states that The Winery is the first South African producer to import ‘Demi-Muids’, that have, over the centuries, proved their value to many great Syrahs and blends of the Rhone Valley.
Individual barrelled components are matured separately, on their primary lees, for at least eight months. The wines are then racked-out, assembled for the first time in a settling tank and then returned to the barrels, harmonised, to complete maturation over a further five to six months.
The Demi-Muids’ gravitational portion remains unracked and untouched for 15 months when it is assembled with the barrel portion, settled for a month or two, and then bottled without fining or filtration.
Dale says this is a “truly unique method in South Africa. It has produced a wine of stunning depth, complexity and intensity, yet with finesse, elegance and, we hope, class.”
He adds that over-blown, in-your-face wines often take precedence in today’s market over individually hand-crafted and more subtle ones. “Gravity dares to be singular. We have strived for equilibrium between natural sucrosity of fruit and integration of structure and minerality, and have produced a wine that meets our goals for individuality and refinement. Our flagship wine is not our biggest, but it is our most balanced.”
Ends
Note to Editors:
The Winery produces four distinct ranges reflecting entirely separate styles and vineyard sites. The heart of the wine-making team has created wines together in South Africa since 1998. Founder Alex Dale is British-born and French-raised, Ben Radford is Australian, Edouard Labeye is French and Heather Whitman is South African. New shareholder Robert Hill-Smith of Yalumba is also Australian.
The wines:
Radford Dale Wines are made in limited quantities to exacting standards in Stellenbosch, South Africa and Eden Valley, Australia. The range comprises Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot, Shiraz, Shiraz/Viognier and the flagship Gravity (a Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot blend). All Stellenbosch wines of origin are from vineyards on the slopes of the Helderberg. The wines retail from R85 to R200.
Black Rock, launched onto the market in April 2005, made in the Swartland from grapes grown in predominantly dryland, bushvines all on the slopes of the Perdeberg. A red blend of Shiraz, Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Viognier, and a white blend of Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay & Viognier make up this very focused and individual range. Retailing at R90.
Vinum combines quality and individualism to produce excellent value varietal wines from Stellenbosch – focusing on Cabernet Sauvignon and old bush vine Chenin Blanc. The wines retail from R50 to R60.
The Winery of Good Hope is an unpretentious, yet stylish and quality-driven range. The wines express vitality and drinkability and are from grapes grown in areas from Stellenbosch to Elgin through to the Breede River. The range comprises Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot and Pinot Noir. The wines generally retail from R29 to R39
Issued on behalf of:
The Winery of Good Hope, Stellenbosch
Alex Dale | 021-855-5528 | 083-453-0053 |
Issued by:
Web Words, Cape Town
Marian Shinn | 021-788-5011 | 082-831-2429 |